China has landed on the moon. This is only an unmanned probe, but will we see men landing on the moon in the future? America have abandoned the moon, but at least China want to mine the moon and bring back mineral wealth to help build their empire. What do you think?

They are playing catch up with the USA, but they could surge ahead if valuable minerals are found.

Creaphis
I will deliberately take a contrary position just for the sake of writing incredibly long arguments

Posts: 4185
Registered: 10-05

There's no mineralogical wealth in the moon because it lacks the liquid water and tectonic activity that you need for minerals to be concentrated into veins worth mining. Also, the idea that mining on the moon and shipping the material to earth could be cost-effective is hilarious. It makes me wonder if the Chinese really know what they're doing. Then again, I'm happy that we as humans haven't forgotten about that rock, and who knows, maybe 500 years from now the moon will be where we build our starships, since its gravity well is easier to escape.

Finding exploitable quantities of lunar water would be a good starting point. That would provide them with fuel for exploration further afield (such as the asteroid belt) and a low-g base of operations.

AndrewB said:
Are there people that actually believe that going to the moon is profitable?

I hear there's a cache of 5 million Bitcoins buried at one of the lunar poles in a solid gold mausoleum. :P

Ultimately it will all come down to the Euro-American Hegemony vs the Chinese Empire in a race to see who can build a sun-killing bomb the fastest (some kind of device that will cause the sun to burn out or go nova).

Then the sheer threat of it being used (total mutual annihilation) will cause the other side to capitulate :P

Creaphis said:
. Also, the idea that mining on the moon and shipping the material to earth could be cost-effective is hilarious

This. This fact is the first thing I thought and spent a good ten minutes dumbfounded at how they could even think this would be profitable. They'd have to find a cheaper means of space travel in the first place, not to mention that the minerals they bring back would somehow have to be ridiculously high in value. What minerals would they even consider being worth it to attempt mining the Moon in the first place?

Kirby said:
This. This fact is the first thing I thought and spent a good ten minutes dumbfounded at how they could even think this would be profitable. They'd have to find a cheaper means of space travel in the first place, not to mention that the minerals they bring back would somehow have to be ridiculously high in value. What minerals would they even consider being worth it to attempt mining the Moon in the first place?

Helium 3. That is very valuable. We are running out of helium on Earth, wasting it in balloons and other crap. At least the moon has it in abundance. That is why China wants to go to the moon.

Not saying they will, but is China starts mining the moon and say it takes off rapidly! Then surly the mass of the moon will decrease and in turn a slight change in the gravitational pull could disrupt our oceans in a drastic way!

Being a Chinese project, there should be a Red Army cheer squad waving patriotic banners - probably as a set of marionettes standing next to the lander. If nobody's seen them yet I'm calling this a fake.